


A Nail, Crows, and a Collar

by Diary



Category: London Spy, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf (TV) Fusion, Awkward Conversations, Bechdel Test Fail, Canon Gay Character, Crossover, Disturbing Themes, Family, Interspecies Romance, Late Night Conversations, Love, M/M, Male Friendship, Moral Ambiguity, Mystery Character(s), Non-Graphic Violence, POV Danny Holt, POV Male Character, POV Nonhuman, POV Queer Character, Romance, Scent Marking, Werecoyote Danny Holt, Werecoyotes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6330244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heavily edited. Crossover. Werecoyote Danny meets human Alex while in coyote form. Eventually, he and Alex meet while he's in human form. Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nail, Crows, and a Collar

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own London Spy or Teen Wolf.

Every time Danny tries to pull the nail out of his paw, he only manages to spread the pain.

He’s tried shifting back into human form, but the same principal applies as when an arrow hits: Assuming it doesn’t directly hit a vital organ, it won’t kill a were, and a were’s senses won’t immediately be affected, but their abilities will be. No shifting of any kind, dwindling strength, and if the pain gets too bad, the senses will start to shut down.

Werewolves look down on werecoyotes for largely being loners who stick to human friends and their own small families. Danny is usually of the opinion packs and limited contact with humans sap the individuality out of its members, but right now, he can see the point. He left his own small family years ago, and going to any of his human friends in coyote form isn’t an option. Scottie has a weak heart and clinical depression, Sara would attack on sight if no one was around to stop her, and Pavel would lock himself and, if she were around, Sara in the flat and call 999. All the other humans he’s on good terms with are just casual mates.

He’s so caught up in his musings it takes him time to take in the new colours swirling in the air and the presence of another heartbeat.

Please, not a hunter, he prays. Please, please, not a hunter.

A hunter who followed the code would leave him to his pain.

Danny hasn’t met many who follow the code, and their violation of it has always been on the side of harshness rather than kindness.

Coyote form means largely viewing the world through colours and their scents.

Bleak, stale, slightly acidic black and greys radiate from this human. Male, adult, a small knife, likely to go with the chicken, cheese, tomato sandwich he has, no other weapons, no wolfs bane, mistletoe, and/or mountain ash.

Concentrating, Danny sees the man is kneeling down and looking right at him. He’s stock still and at a distance where neither he nor Danny could easily reach forward and hurt the other.

There’s the vague orange-ish smell of fear, but aside from the black and white, a calm, almost sweet blue of curiosity radiates strongly.

He’ll help me, Danny realises. If I can convince him I’m not likely to attack, he’ll help me.

Unable to help his whine at the movement, Danny rolls onto his back and looks over at the now almost-upside down human.

The blue intensifies along with the orange-ish colour.

Slowly, the man moves forward.

Aside from the occasional twitches he can’t help, Danny stays still.

Then, suddenly, a firm arm is holding him down, and an almost unbearable burst of pain rips through him.

Without conscious control, he barks in angry pain, gets free of the arm, and finds himself hunched under a nearby tree and glaring at the human.

Once conscious control has returned, he quickly focuses his senses and is relieved to see, aside from the elevated fear and slight pale pink-white of worried hurt, he didn’t hurt the human in any way.

The human makes a move towards him, and he growls.

The human stops, and from what Danny can gather from the mixture of colours, he’s inwardly debating whether to try to get close enough to examine the paw or leave.

Danny’s paw has already healed, and he can’t let the human see this.

He growls again.

Slowly, the man backs away.

Danny lies down and puts his head on his legs.

Eventually, the man turns around and walks forward.

When he’s out of sight, Danny realises he took the nail with him.

…

A few hours later, Danny is walking around the water’s edge when he hears the familiar heartbeat.

The man is sitting on a log and reading a map.

His eyes snap up, and Danny sees the black and greys wrap around his entire body almost like a coat.

With slow, deliberate movements, the man withdraws his sandwich, unwraps it, and tearing a small piece off, gently tosses it close to Danny.

Don’t do that, Danny wishes he could say. You’ve been walking around for hours; whether you feel hungry or not, you need the food. I don’t.

Still, knowing the human isn’t going to eat the piece since it’s touched the ground, Danny eats it.

The ingredients are high-quality but bland.

Flickers of gold catch his attention.

Finishing the piece, Danny trots over to the lake and gets a drink.

As he does, he feels eyes on him, and the gold becomes a little more definite.

Happiness? Amusement? Fondness?

Whatever it is, he wishes the man felt it more often.

He leaves before the man tries to give more of the sandwich.

…

The next weekend, for reasons he’s not completely sure of, Danny goes back into the country.

At around noon, his ears latch onto the familiar heartbeat.

Once, Danny found a little girl wandering around lost, and he gently herded her towards some sympathetic people, but he makes it a habit to stay completely away from humans when in coyote form.

Since the man now looking at him is emitting more blue and gold than orange-ish or pink-white, however, Danny can’t see the harm in trotting after him from a distance.

When the man sits down, Danny does, too.

After taking a bite of his sandwich, the man tears a piece off and gently tosses it over.

Danny eats it.

Once Danny’s had a few more, he goes over to the lake and drinks.

When he comes back to his spot and sits back down, the man suddenly announces, “I’m Alex.”

Danny catches himself before he can nod or offer his paw.

Alex finishes his sandwich, and Danny follows him until he spots a car. Stopping, he watches Alex walk over to it, turn, and see Danny watching.

Danny stays in place until the car is completely out of sight and he can no longer hear the heartbeat.

…

The next time, Alex has books on coyotes and a piece of wrapped lemon pie in his jacket.

“I’m not sure what you are,” Alex informs him. “Your behaviour is more indicative of a coywolf or coydog than of a full coyote.”

Danny supposes he can’t be too offended. For all coyotes, wolves, and foxes typically don’t get along, he’s had casual werewolf mates, and unless a kitsune tried to hurt him or other innocent people, he doesn’t see why he couldn’t get along with them, too.

When Alex takes a break from reading, he unwraps the lemon pie, sets the wrapping on the ground with it still on top, and puts down half of his sandwich before getting up and moving a few feet away.

Oh, good, you do occasionally have treats for yourself, Danny thinks.

He eats the sandwich, makes a show of sniffing at the lemon pie, and trots over to the water.

Once he’s done drinking, he lays away from the pie.

Alex carefully moves over to pick it up. “Everything I’ve read says I’m not supposed to feed coyotes.”

It really would be better if you stopped, Danny agrees.

…

One weekend, Alex comes with a laptop and papers full of maths equations. He works steadily, and Danny amuses himself by swimming in the shallow ends of the water.

When Danny comes over to eat his half of the sandwich, Alex declares, “I’m going to change the world.”

The surety of green-blue makes Danny cock his head.

“Of course,” Alex says so softly a human wouldn’t be able to hear from Danny’s distance, “I might be killed for it.”

Unable to stop himself, Danny whines.

Jumping, Alex hurriedly scans Danny with his eyes.

How do I make you stop feeling sad and lonely, Danny despairingly wonders. And more importantly, how do I make sure you don’t get killed? I don’t care what you’re planning to do-

He pauses.

The realisation he knows little about Alex as a person sweeps through. He’s lonely, he’s kind to an animal, and judging by the maths, he’s smart.

None of this tells whether he’s a good person or not, and for all Danny knows, his way of changing the world isn’t going to be good for the world.

Yet, Danny still doesn’t want to risk losing these weekends.

Ignoring Alex’s uneasy concern, Danny goes to wade into the water.

…

It’s a warm day, and Alex shrugs off his jacket.

Danny has had boyfriends who never understood why he loved wearing their clothes or, in some cases, sleeping with clothes of theirs. Part of him can’t blame them- they were all human- but part of him was exasperated by the way it struck them as so odd. He knows there are humans who seek out and take joy in the smell of other humans they like. 

Eventually, he decided he’d just stop, but since there’ll never be any risk of him and Alex happening-

When Alex is engrossed in his maths, Danny tiptoes over, grabs the jacket, and manages to get it wrapped around himself. Curling up, he listens to Alex’s steady heartbeat, breathes in the wonderful smells, and lets himself doze in and out of consciousness.

A change in colours lets him know Alex has discovered what he’s done.

He peers out at Alex from beneath the jacket.

Then, the wonderful sound of laughter fills the air, and Danny happily soaks in the waves of gold.

…

When Alex starts to pack up, Danny barks to get his attention, nudges the jacket forward, and moves back.

Somewhat hesitantly, Alex picks it back up.

…

Crows are vicious, cheating animals.

Danny snaps his jaws, but as usual, this crow gives no reaction.

Months ago, it had pulled his tail, and now, it routinely beats him at pebble checkers.

In retrospect, he never should have taught it how to play.

Making another move, he glares.

It happily pushes a pebble across the lined dirt board.

When he reaches over to swipe at it, it flies up and lands on his head.

No, he thinks, you’re not making a fool of me, again.

Last time, he’d spent a good ten minutes running, rolling around, and trying to paw at his own head until he’d thought of dunking himself into the lake.

Suddenly, the crow squawks, and he tenses.

Landing in front of him, it looks in his eyes and deliberately turns.

Turning, he vaguely sees two figures.

Probing with his other senses, he comes back with a human carrying knives and another presence.

Alphas can hide what they are from other weres, but most of them can’t completely pass as human. They’re too healthy, their vitals are too steady, they sometimes just vaguely give out a different energy.

Don’t get involved, he tells himself.

For all he knows, this alpha is in the right. In which case, his sympathy doesn’t extend to risking himself against hunters.

For all he knows, this human is in the right. In which case, his protective instincts can’t really argue with: Hunters have never done anything good for me.

Now, everything from kidnapping, torture, and in one instance, leaving him to die, hunters are guilty of doing to him.

For all he knows, he’s about to die, because, all these sensible thoughts were soundly discarded by his body, and now, he’s standing a few feet away from the fighting alpha and human.

Watching the fight, he knows, if he’s about to die, it’ll be from the hunter. Whatever she normally does to weres, in this instance, she’s in the right.

The alpha has human blood under her nails and in between her teeth, and the smell of death and almost unbearable fear of someone else surrounds her. She fights to attack, to kill or bite.

The hunter is awash in righteous cold white-blue with edges of fiery blue-red-black bleeding through, but her response, though aggressive, is based on a mixture of subdue and self-protect.

She also has five, deep gashes running from underneath her heart down to her hip, and aside from the rapid blood loss, the pain is starting to overtake her with grey-pink-green trying to suffocate the white-blue. Even the blue-red-black won’t be much of a match for much longer.

Seeing an opportunity, Danny leaps and slashes his own claws against the alpha’s eyes.

He’d never permanently blind someone. He might have just condemned this alpha to death, but fair is fair. Five scratches (if she lives, she’ll fully heal, unlike the scarred human), and if this hunter goes by death-for-death, it doesn’t concern him. No one will avenge his death when it happens, and if someone he loves is ever taken, he won’t dole out death in response, but whether human or coyote, he instinctively respects the right of others to make a different decision, especially when true innocents are made victims.

Respecting the right of the hunter to make such a decision, however, does not keep her from misstepping, groaning loudly in pain, and promptly falling into a patch of poison ivy.

The alpha’s gone in a flash.

Well, if neither of them kills me, I can look forward to three humans doing it, he thinks in exasperation.

Until something is done about this alpha, he can’t risk making Scottie, Sara, or Pavel a target. The first will hopefully just attribute everything to another phase of wild youth, but the other two- they aren’t going to appreciate him not showing up or even just calling for several days.

Leaving the hunter would be fair, a desperate part of him thinks.

He knows himself better and begins debating whether he should go over and try to help her in his coyote form or go retrieve his clothes and help her in his human form.

That is, if she doesn’t decide to try to kill or capture you, the desperate part pipes up.

Then, relief flows through him when his ears latch onto Alex’s heartbeat.

Ignoring the hunter’s return to consciousness, he runs and stops in the middle of the road.

The car comes into sight, Alex’s vitals painfully spike, and the car abruptly stops.

Barking, Danny runs over.

Carefully, Alex gets out of the car.

Motioning with his head, Danny continues barking.

When Alex doesn’t move, Danny runs back, gives a quick tug on Alex’s trouser leg, and resumes running.

Thankfully, he hears Alex jogging after him.

“No, don’t-“ Alex is panicked, he doesn’t want an innocent animal getting poisoned but doesn’t know how to prevent it, and some part of Danny is going to cherish this later.

For right now, Alex can’t see the hunter, and she’s unconscious, again. Slipping under, he lets out a growl.

Her eyes snap open, and he’s out and tugging a shoe off her before her reflexes can kick in.

Alex sees the shoe, hears her, and Danny feels terrible for the pain the poison ivy is going to cause him.

“Are you a hunter,” she mutters. “The- coyote? Was he one of your friends?”

Dropping the shoe, Danny runs. He only half-listens to Alex’s calm responses and sure actions. ( _Alistair Turner,_ he hears, and _a wolf or coyote or something attacked me, but it wasn’t that one, tell me about him_ ).

Soon enough, 999 has been called, and Alex and the hunter are locked safely in Alex’s car where Alex treats her as best he can with a first-aid kit.

…

When Alex comes back, he’s healed from the poison ivy.

Danny stays out of sight and observes him.

Occasionally, Alex looks around. He doesn’t eat any of the sandwich he’s gotten out.

Even with the alpha dead, Danny’s not sure- his primary mates all had to get rabies shots. All he’d wanted was to play in coyote form, and they’d suffered for it.

All he’d wanted was-

In retrospect, what he’s been doing could be labelled as ‘creepy’. ‘Stalker’ might not be inaccurate.

Scottie once said he was the type who didn’t make the same mistakes twice, but then, Scottie only knows about the human mistakes he’s made.

Cawing interrupts his thoughts.

His crow friend is sitting on the ground and staring at Alex and the sandwich.

For his part, Alex is reluctant, unsure, and vaguely scared.

Running over, Danny barks and swipes.

The crow flies over, pulls at one of Danny’s ears, and then, takes to the sky.

Breaking the sandwich in half, Alex pushes it over.

Danny settles down to eat it.

…

This time, it’s a different crow’s fault.

Danny is starting to think he should stop making friends with them.

Every Wednesday, in the morning, he goes to a bridge, sits on the wall part, and shares a pack of crisps with a tiny crow. Her left wing is good enough for flying short distances, but thanks to cruelty, it will never be at full strength. She’s good at hitching rides on other birds and can get food on her own, but few other crows will associate with her.

He’s engrossed in watching her trying to stuff a much too big crisp in her mouth (any attempts at trying to break it in manageable pieces were met with him being soundly pecked) when he hears a familiar, “Excuse me?”

She squawks, accidentally knocks the crisp off, and almost falls herself.

Finding himself looking at Alex through human eyes, he absently catches her in his palm and tosses her up into the air.

No wonder he always smelled so good, is his first thought.

He knows smells and physical appearance sometimes has absolutely nothing to do with one another, but Alex looks as good as he smells. Sweaty from a run, tall, fit, sandy-brown hair cut short and straight, and deep blue eyes.

Blue eyes, he sees, that are intently studying him.

“Hey,” he cheerfully greets. “Alright, mate? Don’t worry, that crow, some friends and I rescued her a few years ago. She isn’t a danger to humans.”

Not exactly a lie, not quite the truth, he’ll admit. The crow knows he’s different from humans, but he’s not sure if she knows exactly how and what he can do. Once, some drunk men had spotted him coming out a gay club and surrounded him.

He’d planned to just jump over the circle of them and run, but she’d appeared and started attacking them, and he’d had to grab her before they could hurt her.

“No,” Alex answers. “Have you and I met before?”

Shrugging, he slips off the bridge. “Can’t say, sorry. I’m always meeting new people, and I can’t always remember faces and names.” Offering his hand, he adds, “I’m Danny. Danny Holt.”

The hesitation isn’t visible, but Danny can smell it and hear it in Alex’s vitals. “I’m Joe.” He shakes Danny’s hand.

Alex, Alistair, and Joe. No Turner. How many names do you have, and are any of them real, he wonders.

If not for ‘Joe’, he’d just assume Alex was a diminutive of Alistair.

“Take care, Joe,” he says.

He walks away despite the heavy smells of Alex wanting him to stay.

…

Despite knowing all the sensible reasons he shouldn’t, Danny finds himself going back to the country during the weekend.

Alex pushes over half of the sandwich, hesitates, and announces, “I recently met someone interesting.”

For all Alex enjoys his company, he doesn’t talk much. Danny suspects he feels vaguely foolish doing so to an animal.

Tiptoeing over, he tugs at Alex’s jacket.

Slowly, Alex shrugs it off and lets it fall to the ground.

Grabbing it, Danny scoots away and wraps it around himself.

“I lied,” Alex continues. “And I think he knew.”

Danny wishes he could express his sympathy.

He doesn’t get any enjoyment out of lying, but as a werecoyote- he’s yet to meet a human he felt he could trust with knowing. He knows for a fact most of the world would react badly to the supernatural being revealed.

He’s had friends, casual mates, boyfriends, and strangers lie to him, and he’s generally tried not to get upset or angry. Some of them, he knew why they lied, and some of them, he didn’t. In the case of the latter, he usually imagines it isn’t his place to try to find out.

Once, in school, there was a boy who lied all the time, to everyone. Everyone knew he lied, but they just assumed he was a liar.

Danny hadn’t meant to, but due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he learned how exactly the boy’s older sister used to hurt him, and after learning- if lying made the boy feel safer, gave him back a sense of control, or even just kept him from taking out his trauma in more dangerous, hurtful ways, Danny couldn’t begrudge him the lies.

Almost too quietly for Danny to hear, Alex admits, “I work for MI6.”

Shuffling under the jacket, he thinks, Ah. That explains so much.

It seems Alex is half-expecting something terrible to happen, and when it doesn’t, he somewhat relaxes.

“I’m a cryptanalyst, and I manage MI6’s budget.”

Danny remembers the maths.

“And I will change the world.”

It’s not so much defiance or even pride as it is simple, absolute conviction Danny hears and sees.

Oh, Alex, he finds himself thinking. What are you planning? Why? If I could, should I try to convince you not to, or is this an instance of you being right and everyone else, including the higher people who might kill you, being wrong?

Making a decision, he comes out from under the jacket, walks over, and nudges Alex with his snout.

When he runs away, Alex simply sits surrounded by large tendrils of blue.

Going back over, he nudges Alex again and runs.

It takes several more tries before Alex tries to reach out and grab him, but he slips away.

Finally, Alex gets up and starts properly chasing him.

When they’re both tired, Danny flops down next to Alex and rolls onto his back.

Cautiously and with soft gentleness, Alex reaches over and strokes his stomach.

Soon, the touch is surer, and waves of gold pour off Alex.

Danny feels his tail wagging.

…

Next Wednesday, Danny is trying to coax the crow into trying some pureed carrots when he senses Alex nearby.

Joe, he reminds himself.

The crow quickly flies away.

Slipping down, he smiles when Alex stops. “Hello, again.”

“Hello,” Alex answers.

“You just missed my friend." Holding up the bowl, he explains, “I don’t want her eating from people’s gardens, but I’m hoping to get her to start eating more vegetables. Whatever people say about kids only going for potatoes when it comes to them, she’s even worse.”

Alex’s smile is slight but genuine.

“Speaking of, I could use some breakfast right about now. Or lunch, whatever it is at this time of day. Maybe I’ll see you next Wednesday.”

He starts to walk away, and Alex quickly offers, “I could buy you some.”

Even without werecoyote senses, it’s obvious, whatever Alex meant to say, this wasn’t it.

Unable to help his grin, he says, “There’s no need, but I wouldn’t mind some company.”

…

There’s a security camera at Alex’s flat, and Danny hopes his eyes don’t flash and/or someone isn’t currently looking at a severe case of lens flare surrounding the person standing next to Alex and trying to figure out if it’s just normal camera malfunction or something more.

“The people I work for supply it. Security is a concern.”

Inside, the flat is filled with bleak, white-black greys with the occasional free-floating blue swirling past. If this flat has ever had gold, it didn’t last long and wasn’t strong enough to stick.

Alex goes to shower, and Danny explores. There’s workout equipment, perfectly folded and hung clothes, an ebook reader, pulpy orange juice and whole milk in the fridge, a tea maker, and various teas in the cupboard. There’s no phone book or list of restaurant numbers, but Danny imagines Alex either simply goes to restaurants to order or has the numbers memorised.

He’s back in Alex’s room and wondering if he should dare touch an old-fashioned looking radio when Alex comes in wearing a towel.

Some weres claim they can smell orientations or discern them from auras. Danny isn’t sure whether he believes it or not. He can smell lust, affection, and other such things, of course, especially when they’re directed towards him, but until now, he had no idea what Alex might be.

Still, something tells him there’s something else in play. Alex’s response to his presence is genuine (and wonderful). Coming in wearing the towel isn’t an invite, but- it’s not completely naïve, either.

“I’ll let you get changed,” Danny says.

…

Looking down at the menu, Danny realises he really should have insisted on picking the place.

“I don’t mind paying,” Alex says.

“No, it’s fine,” Danny insists. “I must be easy to read.”

“You are,” Alex agrees.

Hey, want to know why you haven’t been able to eat a full sandwich for months now and had to deal with a severe case of poison ivy outbreak, he doesn’t ask. Sitting right across from you.

“Is that bad?”

“It makes for an interesting change,” Alex answers. “The people I work for are inscrutable.”

_Also, the extra dry-cleaning you had to have done on your jacket?_

“Who do you work for?”

“Investment bankers.”

Good lie, Danny thinks. He doesn’t know much about MI6, but from what he’s read about spies in general, most of them will claim to work for some boring sounding department in their government.

“I work part-time at a warehouse. And some other odd jobs on occasion.”

His thought is: People are going to use drugs whether they’re threatened with jail or not. In fact, they’re more likely to if they are thrown in. At least, if someone provides them with pure ones and makes sure to give them the correct amount to not cause an overdose, they’ll keep living.

When it comes to some people, this has really helped his conscience. Some really aren’t habitual users, and some have decided to get help.

When it comes to certain others, nothing is going to soothe his conscience.

…

Who in the hell is ringing at six in the morning, is his grumpy thought. And why are Sara and Pavel never here when this sort of thing happens?

His grumpiness immediately disappears when he opens the door to find an uncertain Alex standing there.

…

On the drive into the country, he resists the urge to stick his head out the window.

“There might be a coyote. As long as you don’t try to hurt him or me, he’ll leave you alone.”

“So, you’ve got your own personal coyote protector,” he jokes.

“I didn’t exactly mean it like that,” Alex uncomfortably answers. “This one isn’t completely tame, but from what I’ve gathered, he isn’t a danger to humans. However, I’m not sure how he’d react if he thought one was in danger. There was an American hiker who was attacked around here, and he stayed with her until I came. Then, he brought me over to help her. Neither of us is exactly sure what happened to whatever it was that attacked her, but he had some blood on one of his paws that I don’t think came from her.”

Oh, he thinks. Good catch. Stupid me.

Alex seems to realise a person might be wary of going somewhere where someone else was attacked, and so, Danny quickly says, “Got it. How’d you two become friends? Did you rescue him from something? Or the other way around?”

“He’d stepped on a nail and made the choice to trust me to remove it. I’ve been sharing my sandwiches with him. I’ve brought enough for him and us both.”

…

He learns Alex went to university at fifteen and doesn’t talk to his parents.

When it comes to the latter, Alex lied about them being dead.

Of all the things Danny might object to, he certainly can’t to this one, given his own parents.

They’re walking when he gathers the courage to let out, “So, you turn up on my doorstep, which is wonderful- except, I never told you where I live. And I was wondering, and I should say in advance that I don’t mind, but did you carry out some sort of background check on me?”

The vague swirls of gold disappear, and Danny wonders why he can’t learn to keep his mouth shut.

“The way we met was unusual.”

“Not that I’m presuming you’re seduced by me, that’s, um, process ongoing, but I promise you, I’m not some sort of setup.”

The gold returns. “You’re trying to seduce me?”

“Well, I can always hope,” Danny answers.

It’s mingled with blue and a knotted mixture of colours. “Why?”

Thrown, Danny shrugs and hops onto some beams sticking out of the lake. “Not that I’m saying you were directly trying anything, but why did you offer to buy me breakfast and invite me here with you?”

Nodding slightly, Alex moves closer.

Hopping down, Danny jogs away. When Alex catches up, he asks, “Can you tell me your real name, now?” At Alex’s surprised, pleased, curious reaction, he adds, “It’s fine. Everyone has a right to privacy. I’ve just had my share of fake names given to me, and if it’s good with you, I’d like to call you by your real one. Joe’s a fine name, but it feels odd whenever I say it to you.”

“My name is Alex Turner.”

…

Later, at his flat, Danny wonders if he should feel guilty about- for all the things he’s done, sex with a virgin had never been one of them.

He knows he’s going to have to work through this later, but right now, his senses are properly satiated with Alex, and gold hangs heavy in the room.

Alex isn’t quite as scent-marked as he’d like, and it was quickly established Alex didn’t want any love bites (the one bad thing about advanced healing is, Danny would love it if he could have them, and he doubts Alex would mind giving them), but this is good. He’s happy to fall asleep next to Alex’s warm body and listen to his heartbeat.

He mumbles when Alex tugs at him, and belatedly, he realises he’s been rubbing his head against Alex’s shoulder.

Settling Danny on top of him, Alex murmurs, “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Cautiously, Danny begins nuzzling various places on Alex’s body, but when he realises Alex, drifting into and out of dozing, feels safe and only mildly curious, he truly gets to work.

By the time he’s done, his scent is thoroughly mixed into Alex’s skin and the air around it.

He curls back up against Alex, feels Alex fall into a deep sleep part of him recognises Alex rarely gets, and rapidly follows suit.

…

There’s no real talk about it, but one day, Danny realises Alex sleeps over every night and has somehow, without Danny noticing and certainly without Danny’s contribution, gotten Danny’s room to where it’s consistently tidy.

Danny knows how to cook and had a few boyfriends he loved doing so for, but before Alex, he, Sara, and Pavel just made simple soups and heated up TV dinners.

Now, he makes meals for himself and Alex every day.

When Alex says something about going out to the country, Danny claims to have plans but encourages Alex to go.

…

“Hello,” Alex says. “I brought something different this time.”

He pushes over the plate of soft tacos Danny made the night before.

Danny eats the ones filled with fish strips (Pavel’s view is seafood can be incorporated into anything) but leaves the ones with veggie ones and the two filled with chicken. He wonders if the lack of the ones with avocado and pork (Danny’s favourite) was intentional on Alex’s part or if Sara had caught him leaving and inspected the plate.

“I suppose you’ve observed the man I’ve been coming with. I wish I knew what you thought of him.”

Well, aside from the secrets we’re both keeping from one another, I’d say we’re good together, Danny thinks. You’re definitely good for me. I wish I knew it was the same for you.

Since he’s not going to risk getting caught dealing drugs with his MI6 boyfriend more-or-less living with him, Danny’s gotten more hours at the warehouse, and he’s found he doesn’t miss going to clubs and dancing. Though he still meets Scottie most nights for a drink or two, he and Alex often stay in. Sometimes, they’ll go out to eat or go for night-time walks.

Scottie’s hints about Danny bringing Alex around are getting progressively less subtle.

The thing is, Scottie can be outright blunt, and Danny wouldn’t put it past him to say, ‘Here’s what some of his other boyfriends did, here’s what some of the men he hung around with who weren’t boyfriends did, now, which, if any of the above, are you planning to do?’

Danny’s offence has little on the fact he had precisely one genuinely decent boyfriend before Alex, and due to his own fault, Danny lost him.

“It’s a complication,” Alex blurts out.

Looking up, Danny cocks his head and prays his boyfriend isn’t about to have a breakdown all alone (mostly) in the middle of the country.

Curling into himself, Alex looks down. “I had nothing important. You were the most important thing I had, and I wasn’t going to halt my plans for a wild animal.”

He gives Danny an apologetic look.

No, fair’s fair, Danny silently tells him. I’ve made animal friends, but if I had to kill them for the sake of a human, I would. There’s no need to feel guilty over leaving an animal you know can take care of itself alone.

Alex sighs. “I was ready for the consequences.”

Danny goes over, lies down, and presses against Alex.

Stroking his fur, Alex finishes, “And now, I don’t know that I am. Even if I can protect him from danger, leaving him-”

Danny represses a whine at the thought.

“I don’t want to. I don’t know if I’m strong enough. I know how badly it would hurt him, and I don’t want that, either. Mostly, however- I love him, and yet, one man against the good of the entire world. The answer should be simple. It should be obvious.”

I love you, too, Alex, he thinks. I just wish the first time hearing those words had happened under better circumstances. Like me being able to say them back. I wish you could just talk to me about what you have planned and why you feel it’s necessary.

…

When Alex gets back, Danny kisses him. “How was it? Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Alex lies. “The coyote enjoyed the tacos you made.”

“Good. Any leftover?”

…

Whenever Alex’s insomnia is on the rise, they usually watch DVDs throughout the night. Even if he can’t sleep, watching something pleasant while resting his body helps Alex, and having a DVD on means Danny never falls into a deep sleep, and therefore, will know if Alex happens to need something.

Tonight, Alex pauses the DVD.

Blinking himself awake, Danny lifts his head up. “What are you thinking?”

Alex kisses him. It’s soft and affectionate, not a prelude to anything.

“I have a problem.”

Moving slightly away, he touches Alex’s face until Alex looks over at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not here. Not now.”

“Do you want to go somewhere else soon and talk about it?”

Alex nods.

“Alright,” Danny says. “Just tell me when you’re ready, then.” He kisses Alex.

Lying down, Alex un-pauses the DVD, and curling around him, Danny listens to his steady heartbeat.

…

They’re going to Paris for a mini-holiday.

Danny suspects Alex has been talking to Sara, and he hopes she didn’t go into detail about what happened the last time he and one of his not-quite boyfriends went there.

It wasn’t Danny’s fault, and the one thing he can never truly forgive the other man over is ruining, at least temporarily, the dreams he’s had since he was a little kid about visiting there.

…

The first day is wonderful.

The second night, he knows Alex is ready to talk, and he patiently waits.

Pulling up something on his laptop, he quietly hands it to Danny.

Danny finds himself staring at an entire screen-full of numbers. It looks vaguely like computer code, but for all he knows it’s another of Alex’s equations. “What am I looking at?”

Alex doesn’t answer, and Danny knows he’s considering lying. All the determination he’s been building up is rapidly leaving him, and he’s left with doubt, fear, and a knot of other unpleasant emotions.

“Alex, you don’t need to tell me anything,” he gently says.

 _I love you and wish you would, but_ -

“I work for MI6.”

“That’s not surprising." He links his fingers through Alex’s. “I knew Joe wasn’t your name, remember? Your cards, which don’t have any place of business on them, say Alistair, but I’ve always known Alex was your real name. The one you chose to call yourself inside. So, yeah, I knew you weren’t an investment banker. Just like you know that I’ve been involved in some less-than-legal things in the past. But I promise you, I haven’t been since we started getting serious.”

Alex slumps slightly, moves the laptop, and pulls Danny against him. “I not sure I can say the same.”

“Is it some sort of computer code, then?”

“Terrorists often use innocent sounding words as codes,” Alex tells him. “Whenever communications from suspicious individuals are intercepted, intelligence agencies delve into other aspects of the participant’s history, both online and otherwise. If a person says, ‘Let’s meet at the zoo,’ analysts will look and see if their history suggests someone who genuinely would make plans to meet at the zoo without intent to cause harm.”

“I think I understand."

“Going off some of the formulas used-” Alex touches the laptop with his free hand. “It wouldn’t be permanent, but if I released this, every politician, military, and intelligence agency in the world would be subjected to the same scrutiny. Every lie they’ve told, every abuse they’ve committed, every mistake they’ve denied making would be exposed. Someone would quickly find a way to make the information hard to access. People would work tirelessly to cover it up. Access to the information would cause panic and social unrest across the world, including England. I didn’t do this to try to hurt our country, but once this was released, there wouldn’t be a way to shield us. It would be applied to everyone.”

Danny tries to process this.

On the one hand, he’s not sure a world without secrets wouldn’t be a good thing.

On the other hand, he’s not sure a world without secrets would be a good thing.

“You haven’t decided whether or not to do it,” he finally says. “But at one point, you fully intended to. Why?”

“Oppression, torture, propaganda- I understand these things will likely always exist. People are often irrational creatures, and governments are comprised of them. But I was taught governments are supposed to serve the good of the people, and I suppose I could have taken truly discovering how often they don’t better than I did.”

Abruptly, Danny realises calm, rational Alex was truly angry, once. He’s never seen Alex angry, and Alex isn’t angry, now. However, there was a point when Alex did get so angry it caused him to decide, ‘I don’t care if I get in trouble, to hell if I let this stand.’

Eventually, the anger passed, and it wasn’t about lashing out or getting vengeance. This is about Alex’s belief everyone deserves justice.

Danny can’t help but kiss Alex.

Alex looks at him with tired eyes.

“I have no idea what you should do,” Danny admits. “Not to your extent, but I can see both the good and bad this would cause.”

“This could put you in danger.”

Shrugging, Danny points out, “I’m sorry if this comes out wrong, but even without this, we’re both in a certain amount of danger. What we are used to be illegal, Alex. No one at work knows what you are, do they? I once came out of a gay club and was surrounded by drunk, angry idiots. Thankfully, I was able to get around them and run, but there are plenty who aren’t as lucky.”

“A different type of danger.”

“I don’t care,” Danny says. “And I don’t mean that blithely. I understand why you aren’t out, Alex, and I don’t judge you or other people who make that decision. But I’m not like that. I never have been. Which is only sort of the point I’m trying to make. Mainly, I’ve been with a lot of other men before you, and some of them were really bad, but because there was something about them I liked, I either ignored or just flat-out didn’t see the bad. Whatever you decide, and whatever happens because of it, you aren’t like them, and the only way I’m ever leaving you is if you stop wanting me.”

“I never will stop,” Alex says.

Danny suddenly knows it’s time to cross another line he’s never crossed before.

Letting himself have one more (hopefully not last) kiss, he gets out of bed. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He goes to the bathroom, pulls the door to, and strips. Watching people partially shift isn’t traumatising unless a person is completely surprised, but Danny’s seen full shifts in other werecoyotes and, in one instance, a werewolf, and even he’s been disturbed by how it looks.

Pushing the door aside, he walks out to find Alex on the laptop.

He gives a quiet bark.

Setting the laptop aside, Alex looks at him for a long moment.

Then, Alex gets off the bed, comes over, and sits down on the floor. “I suspected." Reaching over, he traces around Danny’s eyes. “You have the same eyes in both forms. Part of the reason I thought you might be a hybrid was because, in all the pictures I’d seen and videos I’d watched of coyotes, none of them had such blue eyes. There are slight differences, but your body language is largely similar in both forms.”

No wonder you were thinking set-up, Danny thinks. I just didn’t realise it went beyond MI6 you were concerned about.

“Will you explain?”

Nodding, Danny starts to go back to the bathroom. When Alex starts to get up, Danny puts a paw on his chest and shakes his head.

Alex understands and pushes the door mostly closed once Danny is in the bathroom.

…

“I’m a werecoyote. There are also werewolves and a host of other things. But anyway, if you ask a werewolf, they’ll likely say there are three different types. Most coyotes, we say there are two.”

Danny flashes his eyes. “Alphas and non-alphas. Alphas have red eyes, and they can change a human into whatever they are. Usually. Look, right now, I’m just going to keep things very simple and generalised, okay?”

Alex nods.

“The other two eye colours are yellow and blue. Blue eyes are bad. I’m sure there are weres who have them who aren’t bad people, but- they get them from either killing someone or from stealing a large amount of life or power from them.”

“Then, there are born were-creatures. My mom got the bite when she was a teenager. She asked for it, and her parents agreed. It’s a horrible thing to bite someone without consent. And my dad is born, like me. Actually, his grandfather was a werewolf, so, I suppose, technically, I might have some wolf in me, but I’ve always thought of myself as fully coyote.”

“Can they all change into animals?”

“No.” Uncaring of how much pride is in his voice, he says, “Actually, werecoyotes are sort of special that way. Almost all of us can reach a full shift by the time we’re grown. I was able to do it by the time I was about six. Werewolves, they say only certain alphas can do it, but I reckon there are probably some beta or omegas who can, too. It’s just very rare for them. I’ve never heard of a jaguar or any of the others being able to do it. ‘Course, different types of weres tend not to get along. I’ve met some decent werewolves, though.”

“Full shift?”

“I’ll show you a partial.” Danny cranes his neck, feels his ears reshaping, his fangs and claws appearing, and knows by the different tint of the room his eyes are yellow.

He lets Alex examine him with eyes and fingers.

“We can all do this,” he says.

Shifting back, he says, “At first, I was just curious about you and didn’t see the harm in hanging around. When it came to meeting you in human form, I’m glad I did, but I never planned it. That was just a coincidence.”

Alex suddenly smiles. “Scent marking. I never minded, but I never understood what exactly- Even with my suspicions, I never thought of that. That’s what you’ve been doing.”

Danny wiggles slightly. “Yeah, um, I don’t really keep in contact with other weres. I had a thing with a wendigo once, but mostly, I’ve gone with humans. I try not to-”

“Danny,” Alex interrupts.

He looks up.

“I don’t mind,” Alex repeats. “It’s nice.”

Realising Alex is sincere, Danny relaxes.

“If you want to mark me-”

“No." Alex has offered a few times in the past, but his vitals always belied his words. “That’s just visual. Smell is very important to weres. It’s- it’s not really about possession. Or at least, it isn’t with me. I just like having your smell around me and knowing that you’re wearing mine. It makes me feel like we’re close even when we’re apart, and it doesn’t matter if anyone else knows, because I know.”

“Do you know what other lies I’ve told you?”

“You mean about your mum and dad being dead? If you want to tell me, you can, but I really don’t mind that. When it comes to my parents, having everything to do with them and nothing to do with you, I’d never want you and them to meet.”

Quietly, Alex asks, “Do you love them?”

“Yeah,” Danny answers. “The feeling isn’t mutual. And I’m not saying that to make them look bad or gain sympathy or reassurance. They didn’t really want any children, but they lived around humans, and back then, that’s just the way it was. Couples had children, and if they didn’t, everyone assumed something was wrong with one or both of them.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Danny assures him.

“Charles and Frances. Charles is married to her, and I have his surname. I’ve never believed he’s my biological father. I love Frances, but I don’t want her to be part of my life.”

“So, whatever you decide, they aren’t a factor?”

Alex shakes his head. “I was convinced doing this was right. Now, I’m not sure.”

“I wish I could help you more. Is there anyone else at all you could talk to who might be able to offer you advice?”

The realisation Alex never even considered this- Danny doesn’t make it a habit to blame people he’s never met, but he finds himself irritated at himself, the Turners, and every other person who somehow contributed to Alex’s loneliness and low self-worth.

Alex takes pride in his intelligence and knows he comes across as attractive to most people, but he said himself, “I had nothing.”

Even now, Danny suspects Alex hesitation is less, ‘I’d really rather not die or worse,’ and more along the lines of, ‘Part of being a good boyfriend is not putting your boyfriend at risk.’

Priorities, but Danny wishes he could tell Scottie about all of this. Whatever Scottie’s thoughts on Alex’s computer code, he’d have to admit this is a definite change from most of the others who took all Danny offered with little in return and/or who made no effort to include Danny in their lives.

“There might be someone,” Alex says. “Could we talk some more about what all you being a werecoyote entails?”

“Sure,” Danny agrees. “What are some things you want to know?”

“Do you age differently than humans?”

“Sort of. I look younger than I am but not by much. We tend to go from young to older middle age without much in the middle, then, approach elderly looking at a normal rate. Kitsunes- some consider them werefoxes, and some consider them to be something different. Not weres. I’ve never met one, so, I don’t know what they consider themselves. They can live for hundreds of years. I’ve heard a few have made it to a thousand, but I don’t know if that’s just kid stories or not. Most weres live up to a little after a hundred. There is one werewolf who’s almost two hundred, but she’s a special sort of alpha.”

“After the first time we were together, we both got tested.”

Danny has the feeling there are several questions within the statement.

“If a scientist or doctor-” or hunter, he doesn’t say- “did extensive tests on my blood, they’d find some odd things, but normal blood work just reads as healthy, human blood. No, we didn’t need to get tested, but with not being able to explain the werecoyote part-”

He pauses, takes a breath, and says, “But that’s not all.”

“You don’t have to tell me anything, either.”

“I’d say we’re past that,” Danny replies. “You’ve never asked, and I’ve never really told you. Weres can’t contract or even just carry sexually transmitted diseases. If one enters our body, our healing automatically destroys all traces of it. When I first left home, I was a mess. I hate thinking about some of the things I did. Since I didn’t need to be safe, I wasn’t. And that might have led to other people deciding not to. If someone got hurt because of me, it’s fully on me.”

He shudders, and Alex reaches over to pull him closer.

“Eventually, I got a clue, and I’ve always been safe. Always. And I swear, I’ve never cheated on you, Alex.”

Alex links their hands together. “Did you always know you’d find someone?”

“Always,” Danny confirms. “There were times I got frustrated because it still hadn’t happened, but deep down, I never stopped believing it would.”

“I couldn’t have imagined what that must feel like.”

“Did you imagine you’d spend the rest of your life alone?”

“Yes.”

Someone definitely needs to answer for this, Danny thinks. His stomach twists, and he closes his eyes. “I can’t begin to understand what that must have felt like.”

“At university, a professor, Marcus Shaw, mentored me. We never talked about anything besides mathematics. When I told him I’d been offered a job with GCHQ, I had a feeling he wanted to say something other than what he did.”

“What did he say?”

“He congratulated me. We shook hands.”

Danny knows, if Alex had a normal job, or as normal a job as an idealistic genius could have, they likely never would have met. Alex would have found a nice man or, maybe, even a woman. As much as he’d like to believe fate would have caused them to meet anyways, their meeting was so unusual, he can see why it likely had to be this way or nothing.

The thought of never having Alex makes his body literally ache, but still, he can’t help but think, Why didn’t you tell him not to, Professor? A lonely, innocent boy, and you let him go into a place filled with professional killers and liars. If you were smart enough to mentor him, how in the hell were you not smart enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to handle it? He could have been happy.

I’ve given him a few months of happiness, and I could convince him not to do this. But it won’t solve anything in the long run. He still believes in justice in a way that the people he works for either don’t or can’t afford to let affect their jobs. He’d just end up thinking of something different, and then, he might not tell me.

…

When they get back, Alex makes plans to meet Professor Shaw.

The night before, he follows Danny into the shower, and Danny hopes it’s not just going to be a shower. Ever since they’ve decided not to use condoms, they haven’t done anything.

Danny kisses him, and the swirl of uncertain colours largely floats away.

Gently, Alex turns him around and nudges him against the wall. “Is this okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” Danny breathes out. Reaching behind him to pull Alex closer, he hears Alex picking up the supplies they do still need.

…

In the morning, Alex patiently allows Danny to thoroughly scent mark him.

When he’s done, before getting up to make breakfast, Danny takes a breath and sits up. “You don’t have to say it back. Whatever happens, I love you, Alex.”

Alex’s heart jumps, and Danny is surprised at how quickly gold fills the entire room. “I love you, too.”

Leaning down to kiss him, Danny vaguely finds himself further surprised. Alex has gotten more experience since their first time, and there’s no small tendrils of desperation this time, but this is just as passionate as the first time.

Gasping, Danny manages to put his hand against the headboard and pull away. “Stop,” he says. “Believe me, as much as I really hate saying that, we don’t have time. This is a meeting you shouldn’t miss unless there’s an actual emergency.”

Nodding, Alex steals one more kiss.

Grinning, Danny stumbles out of bed.

…    

When Alex gets back, there’s a mixture of colours surrounding him, but Danny is relieved there’s strong tones of gold and green-blue among them.

“I’m going to find a different job,” Alex announces. “Frances won’t be happy, but I’ve come to realise taking this job at her insistence was a mistake.”

“Okay. Well, you’re welcome to fully move in here. What about the code, though? I’ve been reading, and there are anonymous ways you could-”

“I’m deleting it,” Alex interrupts. Taking Danny’s hand, he links their fingers together. “There are less extreme ways I can help change the world. There are ways I can be relatively sure won’t potentially make things worse. And those ways have the added benefit of meaning a life with you.”

Danny curls closer against him. “I just don’t want you doing something you might regret because of me. Maybe put the code in a safe place, just in case you ever change your mind?”

“If I wanted to, I could recreate the code. Keeping it gives everyone a reason to someday go after me. Right now, it seems only you and Professor Shaw know what I was planning. He is- I don’t think he cares enough to tell. World events only matter to him if they directly affect him, and my doing it likely wouldn’t put his tenure in jeopardy. Talking about a code he can’t show would take away from the proofs he himself has solved. With only you two knowing and no evidence of it ever existing, no one is going to try to extract it from me.”

Danny wiggles in pleasure at the implicit trust at Danny implied in Alex’s words.

…

On Sunday morning, Alex asks, “What’s this?”

Looking over from his journal, Danny sees Alex is holding a collar. “I could have sworn I sent that back years ago.” Taking it, he sniffs it. “Great, one of the crows has tracked down my parents and started stealing from them, now. I’ll have to mail this back with a note. I don’t know what I’m going to do about this new phase of theirs, though.”

“There is a note,” Alex says. He picks up a folded paper. “It was underneath.”

Opening it, Danny reads and doesn’t know how he feels.

“Danny, what is it?”

Folding the note back up, he explains, “Werecoyotes can wear jewellery, but the ones who like to shift a lot don’t usually. My parents both wear,” he holds up the collar. “On people, it looks more like a necklace, but it stays on during the shift. They wanted to always have their wedding rings with them. Originally, they planned to give me their set and buy a new one for themselves when I was old enough, but after I told them it was always going to be men for me, they just gave me one of Dad’s older collars. Said if I ever found someone, I could write back, and they’d send another collar for him but the rings would be up to us. Um, one of the many ways we didn’t see eye-to-eye was, me liking men, fine, but surely, I’d at least find another coyote.”

“Why’d you send it back?”

He shrugs. “I never really thought marriage would be an option. Obviously, if I was going to marry someone, I’d need to tell them about me being a werecoyote, but assuming they wanted rings, I can’t imagine they’d take, ‘You wear a ring on your finger like a normal bloke, and I’ll wear mine around my neck on a literal collar, never mind how that might look to others,’ well. So, if it was somehow an option, I imagined we’d just agree to no rings.”

“That isn’t what you’d want, though,” Alex notes.

Danny shrugs. “I didn’t really choose to end up going largely for humans, it just sort of happened. Every relationship means compromises, but with a werecoyote and a human, some of them are going to be a little different and unusual than others. My parents- they did a lot of things they didn’t particularly care to or even understand for the sake of fitting into human society, but the collars were one of the few ways they didn’t. They got a few compliments, but mostly, I could see the looks and smell the disdain and curiosity when most people saw them, especially when it came to my dad, but they felt being able to shift when they wanted or needed to was one right they should always exercise, and they felt the rings were more than just rings. Even in coyote form, it was a physical symbol of their bond. A way of knowing they were never alone even when they didn’t have each other’s scents on each other and couldn’t sense the other nearby.”

Finishing, he says, “I can understand that, but it’s not something I’d need, too.”

Reaching over, Alex takes the collar. “I would.”

Danny cocks his head.

“Need it,” Alex explains. “If- I understand how important shifting is to you, and I’d want us to both wear rings. A physical symbol of our commitment to one another. I wouldn’t care if you wore it on your finger or around your neck, as long as you did and other people saw.”

Hope starts to blossom in Danny’s chest, and he tries to quell it. Keeping his tone light and playful, he asks, “Are you saying you might want to marry me?”

“No,” Alex answers. “I’m saying I do want to. If you don’t, we-”

Danny doesn’t go so far as to tackle Alex, but they do both end up on the floor. “Oh, sorry, was that-”

“I’m fine,” Alex says with clear amusement in his voice. “Even though I didn’t properly ask anything, is that a yes?”   

“Yes,” Danny breathes out. He kisses Alex. “Of course, it’s a yes.”

Briefly, he thinks of Scottie, who still hasn’t even met Alex, but pushing the thoughts aside for later, he happily continues kissing and scent marking Alex.  

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Notes: I was under the impression poison ivy was a worldwide plant. It turns out, no, the UK doesn't have any. Also, even if it did, poison ivy does not automatically affect everyone it comes into contact with. Admitting I really should have done a simple Wikipedia search before I wrote that part, here's the Watsonian explanation: Danny heard about poison ivy at some point in his life, doesn't really know much about plants but did recongise whatever the plant is was poisonous to the hunter, at least, and just assumed it was poison ivy. For all he assumed Alex was, there's a possibility Alex was never affected by the plant, and if Alex was, he doesn't know the exact reaction Alex had. 
> 
> For anyone who actually has knowledge of UK botanical wildlife or just botany in general, feel free to attribute the not poison ivy to some plant that could conceivably fit within the fic's narrative.


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